Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Hundreds of families displaced in the election violence are being resettled on land in Nakuru District previously owned by the Kenyatta family.

The more than 3,000 families, who have been camping at Mawingo IDP camp in Nyandarua, are being resettled on 1,171 acres at Gicheha farm in Rongai Division, which the government is reported to have bought from the former First Family.

On Monday, Rift Valley provincial commissioner Osman Warfa said the government had bought 8,232 acres to resettle the IDPs in Nakuru, Molo and Ol Kalou.

However, the PC as well as Rongai district commissioner Benjamin Nzioka said they did not know the cost of the land or the people who sold it to the government.

“The role of the Provincial Administration in the resettlement exercise is to provide logistics and ensure security of the displaced families. I do not have an idea who sold the land and for how much,” Mr Warfa said.

Gicheha farm is owned by Gicheha Holdings Limited, a company in which members of the Kenyatta family are shareholders.

A senior official at the Lands ministry, who did not want to be quoted since he is not authorised to speak to the media said: “The Land in Rongai was bought from Kenyatta family.”

He also said the transaction is concluded, but he does not know how much the farm was sold for.

Lands minister James Orengo is out of the country and could not be reached.

Kenya Land Alliance coordinator, Mr Odenda Lumumba, said: “The land it is part of Gicheha farm, which is owned by the family of the late Kenyatta.”

Nakuru Town MP Lee Kinyanjui, an ally of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, dismissed the claims, saying the Kenyatta family sold the land to someone who in turn sold it to the government.

The relocation has caused tension between the IDPs and the people already settled there.

About 30 elders from Rongai met Mr Warfa over the issue last Friday and complained that the government favoured the IDPs and has done little for the 25,000 squatters in the area.

The PC warned that anyone who interfered with the resettlement will be arrested. He said that the land had been bought on a willing-buyer willing-seller basis.

On Monday, Rongai MP, Mr Luka Kigen said the resettlement was a PNU ploy to boost their numbers in Parliament after the 2012 elections, which Mr Kinyanjui dismissed as “rubbish”.

The ODM MP accused the government for sidelining the leaders in the resettlement and warned that this would derail the reconciliation efforts in the Rift Valley.

Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta was in Mawingo camp on Friday and spoke to the IDPs on the need to relocate to Rongai. Accompanied by Mr Kinyanjui, the minister flagged off the first group of IDPs at a colourful ceremony.

The poll chaos victims had already pooled the Sh10,000 paid to each family and bought a 60-acre farm.

In 2007, the government had bought 927 acres from the same Gicheha Holdings Limited in Mtwapa Division of Coast Province to resettle the landless in Kilifi District, according to a report by Kenya Land Alliance.

In a newspaper advertisement last month, Lands ministry sought people with large tracts of land who wished to sell to apply. The advert was placed after President Kibaki ordered resettlement of all IDPs living in camps.

COMMENTS

Submitted by sinajina80Posted October 20, 2009 02:17 PM

I am not one to comment on every article but this goes beyond tolerance. I agree with all the comments so far. There is nothing to cheer about in this. Everyone knows Kenyatta grabbed land north, south, east and west. His family should give this back to the people, at the Coast, Thome, Nakuru etc. Does Uhuru hope for political mileage in this?? I would never vote for him if he were the last man standing.

Submitted by mandeviskyPosted October 20, 2009 02:10 PM

Corruption, corruption corruption!!!! Dad grabs land , son sells back to goverment which uses our taxes, settles kinsmen , uses our taxes to form campaign warchest for 2012. Kenyans, it is time we woke and stood up against these devils who take us for granted.

Submitted by maliha001@yahoo.comPosted October 20, 2009 12:49 PM

Look at how people are happy to be given what was grabbed from them long ago. It's sad that Uhuru is using it as a political tool and at the same time he makes big bucks ouf of the sale. Cheerszz

Submitted by kowochiPosted October 20, 2009 12:27 PM

The athomi cheared on by the ahoi. Most of the ahoi in this picture are descendants of the mau mau strugglers who liberated Kenya or who at least accelerated emancipation from colonial masters (the colonists had in any case made a policy decision from London to grant independence to large swathes of the British empire : so the cartoons should not chest-thump too much)who or what will save this country???

Submitted by JarawilandongPosted October 20, 2009 11:53 AM

Kenyatta family ownership of land is mind boggling. These were virtually grabbed. The IDPs should settle there unconditionally since these are part of the injustices from colonial times. They should go a head and take the ones in Coast Province. How can one family own land the size of the entire Nyanza Province?

Submitted by makabusoPosted October 20, 2009 11:53 AM

Why would the government buy grabbed land for ressettling IDPs? Uhuru should just give the land freely for ressettling their people. Not to trade with an illegally acquired land. Shame on him!

Submitted by kingaiyaPosted October 20, 2009 11:26 AM

Kenyatta grabbed the 1,171 acres at Gicheha farm in Rongai Division and did not pay a penny to anybody! Why should they sell a grabbed land back to the government? It's a grand theft to the tax-payers. Mama Ngina never owned a handfull of soil before 1963, then we wonder where did she get the thousands of acres in fifteen years that her husband was in power? Come on Kenyans,some things need some explaination!!!

Submitted by kathamaPosted October 20, 2009 11:10 AM

Oh my heavenly God! This man named himself Kenyatta to get all the Kenyan land and only his sibblings to realise the mess and now they are letting it to the right people under alot of pressure. Let's learn to be caring to our neighbours ,who needs land in Kenyatta family do so in coastal people and Uhuru u might see the gates of state house one time,but when?

Submitted by mohamedhPosted October 20, 2009 10:20 AM

In what legal mechanism has this family acquired this land? This is public land that has been grabbed.How many more politicians have grabbed such big lands? Very ironical that the govt bought land that is public land rather than investigate how they acquired the land. Sad for the poor.Wake up people and fight for yr rights!

Submitted by WamburaFaithPosted October 20, 2009 09:39 AM

A good read.However, resettling and reconciliation should go hand in hand.Let the rest who own big(under utilised)chunks of land follow suit.

Submitted by 83kimaPosted October 20, 2009 09:16 AM

Talk of conflict of interest... Doesn't the DPM run the Treasury? So how much was the land sold for? Kenya is truly truly, the most amazing country ever. Najivunia...